FAB shareholder seeks to raise $480m from secondary offering

A shareholder of First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s biggest bank by assets, is offering around $480 million worth of shares via a secondary share sale, the bookrunner for the deal said on Friday.

The selling shareholder, whose name was not disclosed, is offering around 113 million shares at a price of AED15.5 ($4.22) per share through accelerated bookbuilding, said Citi, which is acting as bookrunner.

It added that books were fully covered as demand exceeded the deal size.

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The offer price represents a 3.7 percent discount to FAB shares’ closing price of AED16.1 apiece on Abu Dhabi’s bourse on Friday.

FAB, whose top shareholder is the $330 billion Abu Dhabi wealth fund Mubadala, held assets worth AED1.31 trillion as of the end of March.

The bank has been seeking to expand, including outside of the Gulf. Two years ago it said it had considered a bid for London-listed Standard Chartered.